The Dust Bowl and Beyond…

The Grapes of Wrath. Photo by Cliff Roles.

Well, Carmela and Sara are still decompressing after their extraordinary experience as part of the cast of “The Grapes of Wrath” at the Asolo Repertory Theatre. The show ran from March 14 until April 19, and got great reviews throughout the run. It really was an amazing production, and the music play a big part. Here’s a video that really gives you a sense of the scale and stark beauty of the production, as well as the role of the music.

Passerine at Fogartyville, photo by Virginia Hoffman

So now it’s time to move on to the next thing. We’ve been enjoying playing as a trio over the past couple of months, with shows at Tony’s Studio B in Lakeland, at “Cracker Town” at the Sarasota County Fair, a couple of house concerts, at Fogartyville twice (once opening for our friends, the New 76ers, another time joining Tim Grimm and Joe Crookson), and even on the big amphitheater stage at the Gamble Rogers Festival in St. Augustine. It’s been a great opportunity to focus in on our musicianship, on new arrangements, and whatever is really most essential about the music. We’re definitely feeling stronger for it, and excited about where things are going.

As much fun as it is to play as a trio, we do miss having a bass player. Most recently, we’ve been fortunate to recruit Andres Colin on bass and vocals. Andres has established himself as a popular solo act, a versatile guitarist and singer/songwriter whose only drawback (for Passerine) is that he is in such demand. Andres was born in Mexico and started to play the guitar when he was 12, and now comfortable in a wide range of musical styles. We found that he just fit right in with us as both bass player and vocalist. We’re looking forward to learning some of his songs (in Spanish!).

Recently, Nick Friedman and Colin Reid (videographer) from the on-line publication “This Week in Sarasota” joined us for a rehearsal. The result was this video interview and glimpse of the new quartet at work.

So what’s next? We have a show here in Sarasota on May 17th at Growlers Pub, sharing the bill with an alternative folk-rock band from Lakeland called Wiltshire and the Chosen Few. We’ll definitely be digging our some of our most rocking’ songs for that set list. After that, we’ll be at the Florida Folk Festival, May 23-25. The following week, we’re doing a mini-tour in the Panhandle from May 29 to June 1 (5 shows in 4 days). More details to come.

And we’ve been working on scheduling our big summer tour. We’ll be leaving July 25 and heading north again, this time as far north as northern Minnesota. We’ll post the full schedule once all the dates are confirmed.